Super Bowl dominates ratings despite power outage

Super Bowl on CBS dominates ratings despite stoppage in play from 34-minute power outage

NEW YORK (AP) -- As it does nearly every year, the Super Bowl will almost certainly stand as the most-watched television event of 2013 despite a loss of electricity that plunged half the stadium into darkness during the third quarter.

CBS asked the Nielsen Co. to estimate how many viewers watched the Baltimore Ravens' victory over the San Francisco 49ers while excluding the 34 minutes that the game was stopped because of a partial power outage in the Superdome. The game was seen by an average of 108.7 million people, down from the last two years but still ranking as the third most-watched show in U.S. television history.

Despite the Ravens' big lead, few people were interested in tuning out during the outage.